


Phantoms

by Afflitto



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-15 02:59:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4590492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afflitto/pseuds/Afflitto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prumano Cyberpunk AU for Prumano Week 2015.</p><p>“Lovino.  You have to promise me that you’ll never allow them to Upload you.  This is why I showed you the Phantoms.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phantoms

**Author's Note:**

> I could be convinced to continue this, but I have to finish TMWFO first. Cyberpunk is up there as high as steampunk on my loves.

 

“Ignore the ghosts,” Gilbert whispered as he threw his arm around Lovino’s shoulder and pressed him to his body beneath the fold of his trench coat.  
  
They walked huddled but hurried, ducking between the pulse of neon advertisements reflecting off of metallic skyscrapers and chrome streets—noisy even in their silence.  Lovino’s fingertips found the crook of Gilbert’s elbow.  There was only the tap of their shoes against the metal sidewalk.  
  
Under strict curfew, people drained off the street as soon as the night settled in like a deep fog.  
  
\--But the lights of the city never slept, nor did the ghosts.  Their eyes followed Gilbert and Lovino.

“I don’t like this,” Lovino muttered, glancing back.

“I know,” Gilbert mouthed.  
  
“What the fuck _are_ they—“  
  
Gilbert shushed him.  He swallowed past the lump in his throat and shook his head, a sign to wait.  
  
“We shouldn’t be here,” Lovino insisted.  He felt Gilbert’s grip tighten at his shoulder.  
  
“We’re almost out of danger,” Gilbert responded, whisper hoarse.  His eyes flickered back and forth.  “They can’t follow us outside the path of lights…”  
  
“If you say so,” Lovino said.  He turned back again, but Gilbert tugged him forward.  His grip was now so tight that the colour leeched from his knuckles.  
  
The ghosts flashed down the mottled path of lights behind them.  Their eyes were blank and dark, their bodies something of a haze that bent and dulled the neon into lackluster grey.  
  
Gilbert pointed.  Ahead of them was the river, imprisoned between two high chrome walls, the lights of the cities glancing off the ripples in the water like skipped stones.   
  
But the bridge was dark—an old wooden footpath reinforced with new rivets but otherwise untouched.  Gilbert’s other hand was a prodding touch at the small of Lovino’s back.  The click of shoes on metal gave way to the creak of wood.  
  
Lovino released a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding, as he looked back at the glowing metropolis of a city, wrapped around itself with metal beams that trolleys shot across, alleys tangling knots around flashing buildings.  Then he looked ahead, squinting to see in the darkness.  
  
The river cut the neon from the dark, like the drop at the edge of a cliff.  
Gilbert’s fingertips relaxed against Lovino, but he kept him close, even as grass muffled their steps.  
  
“See?” he said.  His optimistic tone was forced and jarring.  “I told you I wouldn’t let them get you.”  
  
“There were so many of the fuckers,” Lovino managed.  Slowly, his eyes adjusted, until he could toe the path alongside Gilbert, no longer relying on his lead as much.  A forest pressed down on them much like the skyscrapers, but gentler.  Soothing wind eased through the leaves, but there was no moonlight.  
  
“Yeah, I know,” Gilbert bit back.  His fingers brushed against one of the trees that forked in three directions from the base.  He tugged Lovino to the right, down another path.  “It’s getting bad.”  
  
“What _are_ they.  And why only in the night?”  
  
“Phantoms,” Gilbert said.  He shrugged a little, rubbing at Lovino’s arm, then stopped to face him.  The caress of his hand on Lovino’s cheek was sharp contrast to the intensity of his stare.  “From the Uploads.  Sunlight drowns them out.  For now.”  
  
Lovino swallowed.  “They said that shit was harmless.  It’s been all over the news--”  
  
“Bullshit,” Gilbert said with a strangled scoff.  “People will spout all kinds of lies to get you to buy their product, and well, this is the worst lie of them all.”   
  
Gilbert leaned in a little, so his voice could grate into a whisper.  “The people who upload their consciousness onto the server, for the most part, are fine.  Maybe shit gets a little fragmented.  At first Ludwig and I thought it was the biggest information collection ploy ever—I mean, what secrets can you keep if your brain is connected to a server.  But that shit is riddled with bugs and if your code gets corrupted then you get fucked up.  And that’s what happens.  You become something caught between the code and the physical--”  
  
“I-it’s still in Beta—and they promised immortality,” Lovino said, “And freedom from hunger and pain and sickness—how is that bad—they can fix the glitches--”  
  
“Yeah, and freedom from anything else substantial,” Gilbert said.  “And what do you think they’re going to do with the leftover bodies anyway once they push the city to Upload.  It’s sketchy as fuck.”  Both hands slipped down to grab Lovino’s shoulders.  His eyes flashed and his jaw twitched.  “Lovino.  You have to promise me that you’ll never allow them to Upload you.  This is why I showed you the Phantoms.”  
  
“I—“  
  
Gilbert shook him roughly.  “Lovino.”  
  
Lovino nodded.  “Fine.  I won’t.”  A scowl settled into the furrow of his brow.  
  
“Good,” Gilbert said, lips pressed together even as his hold loosened.  “C’mon, I have a place we can spend the night.  It’s with a few friends.  Don’t like being out on the streets when the Phantoms are walking.”  
  
“You could have just stayed at my house…” Lovino said.  
  
“All the windows and doors lock tight at 7.  You know that.” Gilbert said “S’fine.  Camping is better anyway.  No Phantoms where there is no artificial light.”  
  
Lovino nodded.  “Okay.”  
  
“You can use me as a pillow,” Gilbert promised.  He collected Lovino’s face in his hands for a gentle kiss, thumb brushing across his jaw.  His eyes were calmer now.  
  
Lovino nodded again.  He was silent.  “They already Uploaded my brother though…for the Beta.”  
  
“I know,” Gilbert said.  “Not much we can do about it right now.” He started tugging Lovino along.  “At least not until daylight.”  
  
Lovino frowned but followed.  “S’just— _fuck._  If what you said is true then—“  
  
“We’ll get him out of there,” Gilbert repeated.  “My friends know their shit.  They helped develop the program in the first place.  They can figure out how to find your brother.”  
  
“Good,” Lovino said, kicking at a few loose pebbles along the path, until they reached a clearing tucked away in a valley, where the smouldering ashes of a fire tumbled down from a heap of charred wood.  Three tents huddled silent under a blank sky.   
  
“Because I miss him…”


End file.
